


these old familiar rooms

by skatzaa



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Established Relationship, F/F, Home Renovations, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 03:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15699237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: ramblingandpie said: "Ginny and Luna are doing a home renovation and it is a NIGHTMARE."





	these old familiar rooms

**Author's Note:**

> I begged for femslash prompts, and Lisa delivered, as usual. I don't really know how to write either of these characters but that sure as hell isn't stopping me. Title from "Knowing Me, Knowing You," since I was listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack and the song came on just as I was starting this.

Ginny heaved the last of the wainscoting into the burn pile. She knew it had been pretty popular for a while, and still was for some people, but she’d finished ripping the last of it out of the living room this morning only to discover  _more_  wallpaper  _under_  the paneling, and she was about ready to scream.

Really, who put paneling up  _before_ taking off wallpaper? Fucking assholes, that’s who.

She started back toward the house, ready for a cool drink of water, assuming the fridge hasn’t died yet. Just inside the kitchen, stepping around a pile of  _even more_  wallpaper, Ginny heard a crash from the direction of the dining room.

“Luna?” she called out, maneuvering around not one but three open tool kits (one had been theirs already; the others were donated by a well-meaning but clueless Arthur Weasley and an equally well-meaning and only slightly less clueless Harry-Ron-and-Hermione) and a fourth one that hadn’t been opened yet (this one from Xenophilius Lovegood; Ginny was a little scared to see what her father-in-law might consider useful tools). 

Luna’s voice drifted through the door-less doorway: “In here, love. There’s a bit of a... situation.”

Ginny closed her eyes and took a breath, reminding herself that she loved her wife and loved this house, and yes, it was absolutely worth the effort of fixing it up a bit before they were able to fully move it.

Then she caught sight of the doorway’s empty hinges and blew out her cheeks on a sharp exhale. She hated that doorway and it’s unconventionally narrow width. Getting Luna’s mother’s table through there was going to be nearly impossible. Not to mention Luna’s monstrosity of a desk, which they would somehow have to also get up to the second floor without breaking either the desk or punching a hole through one of the walls.

But really, an old fixer-upper farmhouse in the countryside was absolutely worth it. 

She was just glad she’d drawn the line at the huge black hutch her mum had tried to pawn off on them; it  _never_  would have fit in the house. What would they have used it for anyway?

Ginny stepped into the dining room, took in the scene, and promptly turned around again. But it was too late: the sight of the old wooden floorboards, much of the baseboard molding, and a good portion of her wife covered in eggshell finish “Tanager” red paint had already burned itself into her brain.

“Love?” Luna asked. “I’m afraid it’s not a good idea for me to move right now. You’re going to need to help.”

Ginny pressed her fingertips against her eyelids and inhaled. “Right, of course. I’ll be right there.”

*

Ginny very deliberately set the scrapper down and stopped staring at the wall in front of her. Not only did the assholes who lived here before  _not_  take off the wallpaper before they put up the wainscoting, they also left  _another layer of wallpaper underneath it_.

She was going to scream. Or throw a hammer, if one was within arm’s reach. Actually, she wasn’t picky. Any sort of pointed object would be useful right now.

Her cellphone vibrated twice in a row—that meant a call, not a text. Without stopping to check who it was, Ginny pulled the phone from her back pocket and swiped up on the screen. She pressed the phone to her ear and said, “Hello?”

“Ginny?” Her mum said on the other end of the line. “Is it still okay if Fleur and I come over for lunch this afternoon?”

Ginny glanced around the kitchen. She was sitting on the floor, surrounded by little piles of peeled wallpaper, but even from her low vantage point she could see everything that had yet to be fixed or cleaned; which was to say: everything.

“Not sure that’s the best idea, mum,” she said, shifting so she could hold the phone up with just her shoulder. She reached for the scraper again. “The kitchen is a disaster, half the appliances still aren’t working, and I think Luna is tearing up the driveway in her quest to get the perfect garden.”

Molly tutted unsubtly. “I knew that house would be too much for you girls. You should have gone with a nice, quiet home in the suburbs to start—”

“What, like you and dad did?” Ginny shot back, sarcastic. “I’ve told you, mum. We didn’t  _want_  a ‘starter home.’ We wanted a house that would be  _our_  home, that we could make into something special.”

“I still don’t see—”

“Oh, gotta go, bye,” Ginny said, and hung up without an ounce of remorse. She loved her mother, she really did. But the older she got, the less she found she agreed with Molly as a person. It was sort of exhausting, really.

Ginny dropped the phone somewhere behind her and turned her attention back to the wallpaper, which wasn’t going anywhere without one hell of a fight. Well, that was one fight she was willing to pick. 

*

“I’ve officially finished in the garden,” Luna said, startling Ginny so badly she dropped spackle scraper onto the tiled floor of the bathroom. “Sorry.”

Ginny picked the scraper up and wiped up any of the spackle that ended up on the tile before turning to her wife.

“It’s alright babe,” she told Luna, leaning in for a kiss. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of sweat and manure. “Do you need me to get out of here so you can shower?”

“Oh, no,” Luna said, glancing disinterestedly down at her disheveled attire. “And anyway, isn’t the shower head still broken?”

It was. Ginny swore.

*

“Uh, Gin?” Ron said, poking his head up from the basement steps. There was a smudge of something unidentifiable on his forehead. “Harry thought he fixed the shower head but now the water heater is leaking. Hermione’s trying to Google it now.”

“Don’t blame this on me!” Harry cried out, voice distant. Ginny barely heard him, as she was busy trying to smother herself with a throw pillow Fleur had brought by the day before, despite the fact that there was still very little furniture in the house for the throw pillow to be placed on.

“Don’t worry we’ll handle it,” Ron told her, and retreated to the basement again. She could sort of hear him yelling something at Harry and/or Hermione, but it was impossible to make out.

*

Ginny linked her fingers through Luna’s and leaned against her wife’s shoulder. They stood in the finished kitchen, complete with brand new appliances, clean white cabinets, and wallpaper-free walls painted yellow at Luna’s insistence.

“It looks great, baby,” Ginny said. Luna smiled and tilted to rest her forehead against Ginny’s temple.

“Would you like to see the garden, now?” Luna asked, her voice as kind as it ever was. Ginny felt bad that Luna’d had to put up with her crankiness for the past few weeks as they dealt with the worst of the renovations. But they were through the worst of it, now, and she thought she could see the finish line.

Ginny tugged Luna toward the front door, and they stepped out into the soft light of an early autumn evening. They hadn’t done much to the front porch because it hadn’t needed help as urgently as the rest of the house. Ginny was thankful for that lack of work, as they started down the steps toward the first of the garden patches, lining the drive—

That is, until her foot went straight through the board of the second step and she tumbled into the dirt.

*

The thing was: they knew when they bought the house that it wouldn’t be easy. That it would take years to really finish everything, because as soon as they were done with one project another would crop up. And another after that.

Ginny kept that in mind, as she eased herself down onto the couch and propped her bad ankle up on the coffee table. Her mum would have her hide if she saw such a thing. Good thing this was  _their_ house then.

Luna positioned the throw pillow from Fleur under Ginny’s heel and then draped the bag of frozen peas over the worst of the swelling.

Ginny sat and stared listlessly at her foot for about thirty seconds, before she tipped her chin up and smiled apologetically at Luna. She said, “Sorry I still haven’t seen your gardens.”

Luna took a moment to take off her sandals and then she curled up on the couch against Ginny’s side. She allowed Ginny to drape her arm over her shoulders and they relaxed into each other.

“That’s alright,” Luna said, linking their fingers together. “We have plenty of time for that.”

Ginny turned her head and pressed a kiss into Luna’s hair, which smelled, as always, of the strawberry shampoo she loved to use. Their honeymoon was technically over tomorrow, but Luna was right. They had plenty of time.

  

That didn’t mean she wasn’t fixing that stupid porch step as soon as her ankle was better, though.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! This was lots of fun to write haha ^-^ Comments and kudos are always appreciated.
> 
> (I'm always open for prompts, both here and on tumblr, if anyone ever has any requests. I can't make any promises, but I appreciate every prompt that gets sent my way <3)
> 
> Read on,  
> Skats


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